2022 Aesthetics, Jewelry Factories & Brand Audit Tools ?? Product People ??

This is the first (LinkedIn version) of my Product People newsletter where I discuss concepts and tools for bringing products to life, and provide factory links and ideation for consumer products.

The format tends to be

• Idea/Inspiration
• Product ideas with factory links
• Tools

My general thesis... The consumer brands we grew up with in food and beverage, home goods, consumeables, cosmetics and luxury are being disrupted by DTC, more curated retail and social media, and what is going to come of it is hundreds of $500k-$5m businesses more tailored to what individual consumers want. This newsletter provides insights and tools for those who want to be apart of that journey, and the career liberation that can come from it.

Now, onto this week.

For the most part, products and brands are just repeating ideas and concepts that already exist. We shouldn't be afraid of that, as much as Jony Ive might dislike it, instead we should lean into learning from the things that have succeeded before us.

The modern internet is a super power, and with the right tools, we can now see ANYTHING--tools, suppliers, web infrastructure, ads etc--that a brand uses to win. The tools I've found, I give freely below, this is a long one, bear with it, it's got all the goods.

Let's begin.

?? GENERATION AESTHETIC ??

Design has been democratized. Youtube tutorials, templates, Behance links, Canva, the rise of the creative, whatever it is, amazing design is now table-stakes. Here's 7 new brands I think are beautiful. Steal their aesthetics, give them twists, build something amazing.

?? FACTORIES ??

We're living in a world where entrenched industry doesn't understand social. This gives room for hundreds of $500k-$15m a year direct-to-consumer brands to exist and take their market share in this period of mass social media transition from Facebook/Instagram to TikTok.

A huge portion of Gen-Z center their self-expression in having unique style. They also transition from styles over shorter periods of time, fluidly This opens up an industry for unique brands appealing to a style phase for their consumers, native on their mediums.

Vitaly is one of the first modern jewelry brands that caught my attention, because they were doing a new product drop every week. This is an email/social marketing strategy I'm a huge fan of and feel more should adopt versus bigger collection drops. Smaller attention bites!

Another that crushes is Frasier Sterling - offers extensive customize-able options - lots of styles across mediums - timely pop culture options (see the Euphoria bracelets)

Now, the factories themselves

A lot of these are stainless steel and alloys, I also include some gold plated and real gold etc towards the end. On any idea you can ALWAYS go nicer, I like lower price points for my examples because it's more actionable.

Cheap enamel pin style rings etc 200 units for custom at $2.05 (per set of 5). https://jojo3.en.alibaba.com/minisiteentrance.html?

Connected earnings 350 units for custom at $.75 bagged https://finetoovip.en.alibaba.com/minisiteentrance.html?

Rings 100 units for custom at $1.72, custom at 500 for rings https://cndgjewelry.en.alibaba.com/minisiteentrance.html?

Higher quality women's jewelry A step nicer - 18k gold plated starting at $6.89 https://dylamjewelry4.en.alibaba.com/minisiteentrance.html?

Actual 9-18k gold $130 per, 20 MOQ , 100 units to customize logo, 500 units for custom packaging https://vfook.en.alibaba.com/minisiteentrance.html?

Full ice and lab diamonds (I ordered one of these, I will report back) https://zuanfa.en.alibaba.com/minisiteentrance.html

The plugs are now yours, do as you will with them.

If you wanted to start a brand from these I would -

• Order samples from 2-3 factories
• Provide 1-2 custom designs
• Start on lower end of pricing
• Order 1-200 units
• Create 60 videos to test
• Send 30 to smaller/emerging influencers for content
• If you do well with small run, expand

Testing with a small quantity lets you see if you can make sales with

• A small landing page
• Content you create yourself
• Not spending a lot on custom packaging
• Shipping yourself

Before going all in with

• Custom packaging
• A 3PL for fulfillment
• A full line of 6-10 SKUs

?? TOOLS ??

Here's my stack for looking at any brand's playbook is in this thread. See what Shopify plugins they use, what ads they run, what terms they rank for, anything.

Click to read the thread.

Here's an example of how I actually use these tools to run a brand audit and see everything a brand does, I'm going to use one of my fav's Akila as an example.

Here’s a complete breakdown of their strategy: top drivers, email, website, social and more!

The primary marketing for Akila is collaborations. They’re running ads, social, email etc, but the primary top of funnel driver is collabs large & small. This includes Grateful Dead, big brands like Pleasures, Chinatown Market and 10 Deep + local LA hits like Sang Bleu and Mister Green:

I love this example because its a national business, but really leaning into the local roots in its collabs, they can anchor their business just regionally in a Tier 1 market like LA.

Website:

Running Shopify with the Baseline theme (this is a great Brutalist Shopify theme), using Loox for reviews and referrals

54 SEO Domain Authority, very solid!

No SEO focus beyond branded. Standing out for “Grateful Dead sunglasses”, “LA glasses” + “LA sunglasses”

Social:

TikTok every 1-2 days, lots of influencers from niche LA with a few followers, to 10k, all the way to big models. Hasn’t caught steam, but putting in the work. Needs hooks in my opinion.

Instagram mostly photos, not posting TikTok content as reels, straightforward.

Ads:

• Top of funnel stylized videos
• White background product imagery and photography
• Value prop ad that’s been running for almost a year that likely is definitely working.
• No new ads in 2022, running existing winners

Email:

Exit Popup - 10% off the first order

Running Omnisend for email marketing, firing emails every 1-2 weeks, 3 step abandoned cart automation over 10 days.

Retail:

32 retailers in their locator, a nice sweet spot where everyone can still get attention, but no major chains or anyone that might dilute brand value at this size.

This is a quick example of an audit, I highly recommend doing in on your brand, brands you aspire to be, and competition!

This newsletter is every week on LinkedIn or via email, I appreciate you signing up!

Thanks for reading, stoked to see what you create!

– Oren

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